A gantry crane for transferring containers and swap bodies between railways and roads is disclosed in European patent EP 0 796 813 B1. Corresponding to the design customary for a gantry crane, a crane trolley on a crane girder, which can travel in the girder's longitudinal direction, is provided. Seen in travel direction of the gantry crane, two hydraulic cylinder units are attached in tandem and with spacing between them. Each of the cylinder units is vertically oriented and includes a lift cylinder and in it a movable push rod. The lift cylinders are rigidly attached to the crane trolley and the push rods, extending downwards from the crane trolley, can be extended in the lowering direction and correspondingly retracted in the lifting direction. At the ends of the push rods opposed to the crane trolley, a suspension frame is attached via slotted hole connections, on which a load take-up device in the shape of a spreader frame is suspended. The connection of the suspension frame with the push rods via slotted hole connections was selected in order to balance differences in the synchronous operation of the cylinder units and corresponding inclinations of the containers. In addition, the suspension frame and the load take-up device arranged in it is offset laterally in regard to the longitudinal axis of both rod-cylinder units by at least 500 mm so that containers or swap bodies can also be placed on a rail car, or lifted off it and simultaneously a catenary wire can reach under the laterally offset arrangement of the load take-up device at the push rod.
Additionally, European patent EP 1 365 984 B1 discloses a bridge crane for stacking containers, in particular ISO containers, which moves containers within a container terminal into or out of a storage site. The bridge crane contains a crane girder which spans the width of an generally rectangular storage site. On the crane girder and along its longitudinal direction, a crane trolley can be moved in the direction of the width of the storage site. The crane girder can be moved via bridge trolleys on tracks in the direction of the crane travel and, thus, laterally to the crane trolley on the crane girder as well as in longitudinal direction of the storage site. In order to be able to handle the container, a mast is positioned on the crane trolley which is guided in vertical direction and can be lifted or lowered. This mast is shaped like a box girder and lifting gears are placed on the crane trolley for the lifting and lowering movement of the mast. On the lower end of the mast pointing in the direction of the containers to be handled is a load take-up device for containers, in particular a so-called spreader, suspended in an articulated fashion. The load take-up device is connected via cables to the lifting gears on the crane trolley. The mast is not directly driven in the lifting or lowering direction, but only indirectly via the cables acting at the load take-up device. The use of a rigid mast between the crane trolley and the load take-up device has the advantage that containers can be handled with little swaying movement in contrast to the also-used load take-up devices which are exclusively suspended on cables.